Attitudes Toward Higher Education And Acculturation Amongst Native American College Students

<p>This study was designed to investigate attitudes and acculturation levels at a tribal community college to see if they differ from those at a four year state institution. In this study, the NACSAS (Native American College Student Attitudes Scale), and the NPBI (Northern Plains Bicultural Inventory) were administered to Native American college students at both types of colleges.</p> <p>Results show that there were significant differences between the schools on the subscale of the NPBI, in the “European American Cultural Identification” (EACI) category, and on the NACSAS, on the “Perceived Racism” category. There were more students classified in EACI subscale at the four year state college than the tribal community college. On the Perceived Racism subscale the tribal community college students scored lower than the four year state college students as hypothesized. On the “College Enthusiasm” scale on the NACSAS, the difference was not significant. There were more students at the tribal community college who were classified as being Traditional and Marginal than at the four year state college. In the Bicultural category, there are more students at the four year state college than at the tribal community college.</p> <p>The study suggests that Perceived Racism and level of acculturation are important factors to consider when looking at retention and attrition rates of Native American college students, and these are important factors to consider for future studies.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Year

1999

Author dc:creator

• Wilcox, Darlene Marie

• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/779

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-1781